#you are starclan

[alfamangle]

I have been wishing to make this post for quite a while, so please, let me babble on about why you all should read this tumblr series I hold quite dear.

Ahem! YASC or @you-are-starclan is a tumblr based arg where you, dear reader, can play a part in the story and try to change the story to your whims! Make them suffer! Imrpove their lives! Do something that entertains you! A story needs an audience and the story calls for audience participation! Follow the pinewood clowder as they live their lives under the watchful eye of you.

But! You aren't alone! It would pull the story too many ways for everyone to get their way, after all, so decisions are made democratically! Rejoice for the voting system! Every update a poll is put out to decide the fates of the cats! Their lives rest in the many, many hands of those who watch them preform on their little stage of an abandoned mall.

"But, dear writer of this post, the polls have already closed! What is the point!" and that my friend is where you are wrong. Yes, the play may have already been written, the actors repeating the same actions over and over, but, dear reader, you can still see the hands of your fellow audience members of the past in the story beats! Instead of waiting, hands clutched in hoping your beloved favorite cats make it through the season, you get to instead see the innevitability of decisions already made, plans made in haste in yelling "This is the only way! This is how it has to be! (it never did! There was always other ways to deal with everything, but these was the decisions we made, and we must lie in the bed we built with our many hands) There is a special sort of joy in that experience, I think.

So, dear reader, why not grab a ticket and take a seat and watch the show? A story cannot live without its audience, and my friend why not keep the story alive. Watch the actors preform for you, and know your fellow audience members tried their best (we really tried!). And remember, dear friends, maybe the luckiest of them all are the ones who managed to slip between the dazzling spotlights and fade into the buzz of the background, as being perceived by hundreds of eyes for your every move may not always be for the best.

Enjoy the show :)

[yourfaveisclasspected]

EUTHAMIA is a BARD of BLOOD!

Requested by @timetokrill!

Character from @you-are-starclan!

[culpae-vulpis]

You Are Starclan Fanart,

Euthamia belongs to @you-are-starclan

[yascenjoyer]

Euthamia YouAreStarclan as @catcrumb drawings

(Bc I’m emotional about her)

[leporellian]

Been missing @you are Starclan recently. Are you still planning on continuing it?

i will eventually at some point; the issue is that i have the combination of “currently at one of the most work-intensive colleges in the us” and “currently just really sick of warrior cats outside of just like, drawing animals” so it will probably take some time honestly.

the issue with yasc is how intensive it actually is. not only does every character have their own wee subplot going on, and not only do i have to do the main story posts and illustrations, i also have to make the polls, moderate the server, keep it interesting without letting arguments begin, figure out how to plan multiple story possibilities at any time so there’s a satisfying arc no matter what readers pick, manage the afterlife stuff, and do this all in a way that follows what readers themselves have set up because i don’t have the room to contradict my readers. it’s… a lot, and very overwhelming, and i feel like my audience for yasc has expectations that i (guy who originally started this as a fun hobby in between work and college applications) can’t fulfill.

meanwhile, i have not only my school, which in and of itself is A Lot, but a job and a family that depends on me, and other stuff that i consider more important in the grand scheme of things than yasc.

yasc will return at some point, i promise. i just have other things higher on the priority list and every time i sit down to try and get back into it i just end up with a headache for the time being

[someonesomewheredown]

Is he really a true blorbo if the collective user/fanbase doesn't bring him back from the dead?

Under the cut is my design for OG Reggie and a little bonus sketch that kinda could work as a guide for the shapes of cat limbs?

[mourningsbane]

So something is blocking starclan, and we know that some sort of cat afterlife has to exist because honey and her kits are around. Did Honey's death cause some sort of trigger event? Did starclan get closed off or did they willingly close themselves off?

As above;

As StarClan looks down from the heavens, over the rolling hills and fields that make up LutumClan, they see nothing. A veil of shadows covers the land, pitch-black darkness deep and impenetrable.

A crowd of whispers emerges, but the only words that Flightpaw can make out is a hushed eulogy for the damned.

[loudclan-clangen]

Alright, now I'm curious, what are the rules of StarClan's Oneway Dunktank? Are there cats who can't touch it (mediators for sure but anyone else?) Do healers meet there every half moon? They can sacrifice a life to speak directly to StarClan but what about other times?

(Also you're not gonna believe this, I looked up effects of crude oil exposure and studies indicate it may cause Anemia and low white blood cell count, so maybe she got a bleeding disorder because she can't stay out of the Forbidden Jacuzzi).

VERY LONG, LOTS OF TEXT, SORRY I GOT EXCITED TO LORE DUMP

The rules/powers of the Black Water Pool and Starclan are intentionally very nebulous. 1. Because I think starclan is more effective as a mysterious force than a clearly designated entity, and 2. Because I would like to have some flexibility going forward in the comic regarding the powers/rules of starclan. Here's what's clearly defined:

Any cat can touch the oil, like physically speaking. They will not just drop dead unless something else is going on that is worsened by the experience. But something may be worsened by the oil, especially if they are deeply exposed to it, like swimming in it or ingesting it the way one might if they weren't specifically trained in how to interact with it safely (like a healer or a leader). This leads to rumors of cats being cursed with terrible visions (hallucinations), disease (coughs caused by respitory damage), or wounds (chemical burns from prolonged exposure) because they touch the Black Water without permission. These could be actual curses from starclan, or they could be biological reactions to the oil, but that doesn't really matter because the cats believe that they are curses. (If that makes sense). For this combination of reasons, (religious belief and biological evidence), cats with open wounds, bad coughs, or who are actively pregnant are absolutely not allowed to touch the oil and are encouraged not to be near it. (Excluding dried oil worn by healers, we've covered in an earlier post that that is a stable form that isn't going to pollute others). This is justified by the healers as being times when one does not want to tempt death, and that being near the pool brings one's spirit closer to the dead, which is good for communing with them or asking them for favors, but bad when you are fighting for/actively creating life.

All of the leaders and their leadership teams have meetings staggered throughout the moon. Leaders and deputies meet on a full-moon, healers meet on a half-moon, and mediators meet on a new moon. (Gatherings also happen on full moons, just later in the day/night. The clans meet the leaders at the gathering place.) Healers might meet at the Black Water Pool but they do not always. Specifically, the Freezingclan healers refuse to meet at the Black Water, so if they want all of the clans' healers to meet they have to pick another place, usually the gathering place for simplicity. Since the healers can only commune with Starclan by sacrificing a life, they don't do it on a monthly basis and not meeting at the Black Water isn't inconvenient for them.

The healers (and leaders) can only speak directly to Starclan by sacrificing a life period. One of my biggest issues with the actual books is that speaking to Starclan is so casual that they constantly have to justify the cats not being able to in order to maintain any form of mystery or miscommunication, or risk making beloved characters look like jerks for not telling the living cats something important/make the entirety of Starclan look less powerful by claiming that they just "didn't know". My very simple solution to this is to put a layer of separation between them. In order to talk to the dead you have to die. This means that characters will only do so if they feel it is VERY important and they are certain that Starclan will give them a helpful answer, which they will not always do. (Why doesn't Wildfirecry ask Starclan how to cure Rosehippaw? Because he knows that there is a very high likely hood that the answer is "you can't" and then he'll lose both his daughter and a life that he could have used to help his clan in a more effective way).

Circling back to how normal cats are meant to contact starclan if they aren't allowed to touch the Black Water Pool by themselves, we finally get to talk about Loudclan burials! (This idea has been rattling around in my brain since the bonus art for Moon 18!) Okay, so: When a cat dies, the ground on the mountain is too hard and shallow for them to really be effectively buried. Due to this, the body is placed into a shallow dip dug into the ground and then covered by a pile of heavy stones in a make-shift cairn. The cairn discourages larger scavengers, like foxes or ravens, who might carry pieces of the deceased away, but allows smaller scavengers like mice and insects to eat away the fleshy bits. After a few moons, (during which family and friends are encouraged to keep their distance and learn to live without the deceased) when the scavengers are finished and all that is left are clean bones, the body is exhumed and repositioned so that the skull is left exposed outside of the cairn that covers the rest of the body. This is meant to allow cats to speak directly to the spirit of specific dead clan mates, though there is, of course, no expectation that the spirit speak back. (This is what we see Fiercestripe do in the Moon 18 Bonus Art). All burials happen in a field of forget-me-nots (small, blue. five petal flowers) as they cover the scent of decay, and therefore the cairns/graves are often decorated with them, along with other flowers or plants that may have been special to the deceased. Less commonly, a family member may ask to take a piece of the deceased from the cairn, such as a small tail bone or claw that they will wear to "carry the deceased with them". This is only allowed if the cats are known to have a close relationship, and is very frowned upon if the requestor is not a close family member or lifelong mate.

The major exception to all of this "Starclan is nebulous and distant" stuff is when I draw ghosts (like Bluepaw talking to Owlstar, which, admittedly, I drew before I had a good grasp of what I wanted to do with spirits and starclan). I know that it sort of negates that distance but... I just think it's fun. I think it's more fun to see what the spirits have to say (on occassion) than strictly sticking to never seeing Starclan outside of the Black Water Pool. So for those instances just remember that you, as the audience are getting sort of a third person omniscient view. You can see the ghosts but the characters in the story cannot (unless it is stated that they can due to like ghost sight or something).

Of course, as I said at the beginning, I'm trying to remain flexible, and I'm sure I'm going to break all of these rules at some point, but if I do my job correctly, then moments when these rules break should be important, and not just because I'm disregarding or forgetting them.

On a completely different note: You're not gonna believe this but I actually did know that! I did a decent amount of research into the effects of oil exposure when i was thinking up the Black Water Pool and yeah! It absolutely has played a part in Eklutna's condition. She's had hemophilia since birth, (which very simply means that her blood doesn't clot very well (for all of you biology nerds out there yes i know that it is rare for a cis female to have full hemophilia but it is possible if both of her parents had it)), but that has 100% been worsened by her love of swimming in "the forbidden jacuzzi". As long as we are sharing fun facts: exposure to crude oil while pregnant, while not always, can occasionally cause birth defects like weak lungs!

[esoteric-terror]

Bathe my whole entire world in pious flames

Show me you’re in control!

The vengeance flooding from your thin skin heeds my prayers!

Hallelu-

If I abandon dignity and bend my knees could I still die in peace?

I’m just so fucking tired you’ve taken everything

And still you think that you deserve our love

so ego goes

Fuck your Hallelujah!

[fallenclan]

actually this song fits ravenstar so well that i had to throw together a real quick edit about it. imagine my vision

[alfamangle]

Some yoodles (yasc doodles)

[sallytwo]

Do you wanna know how far you've come?

id in alt.

[culpae-vulpis]

Older mspaint parody with wheat. This took me like 3 days to do.

characters belong to @you-are-starclan

[yascenjoyer]

@you-are-starclan Cats As @catcrumb Drawings

I’m obsessed with their art, please go follow them :]

Nemorino

Dove

Chester

Wheat

Juliet

Peter (arriving to his position as a cosmic baby judge)

Reggie

Phlox, Gerber, & Frederick

Literally everyone, but Rye and Wheat especially lmao

Bonus:

All of Starclan @ Nemo + Aster, then every couple forever

[andyztoyz]

“god knows all of your ugliness,” my mother says, “and loves you despite.”

“is that supposed to make me feel loved?” i reply. “i am still ugly. he is still god.”

[harriertail]

actually realising how bullshit the 'nightpelt didnt get his lives because brokenstar was still alive' decision was. i initially assumed it was not a choice by StarClan, as Brokenstar was still leader even in exile, but with further books having the 'alive but chose to leave Pinestar' let Sunstar get 8 lives, and recently alive Bramblestar 'step down' and let Squirrelstar presumeably get her lives, it becomes a choice that StarClan made- and a fucking stupid one.